LOS ANGELES — He had his wife, his daughter and his job, and yet on those dank Seattle mornings when Kenechi Udeze drove toward work, he would find himself crying.

He didn’t have football.

Not really. Udeze was the strength coach at Washington. He would help the coaches with the defensive linemen when the need arose, but his hand was no longer on the ground, his eyes no longer narrowed at the sight of a quarterback who didn’t see him.

He wasn’t one of them. The birthday on his driver’s license indicated he should have been.

“It was tough,” Udeze said Tuesday. “It still is. It still leaves a big hole. My daughter (Bailey) just turned 10. She was born three months after the cancer.”

Udeze was starting for the Minnesota Vikings, who drafted him after his school-record 28 sacks at USC, after he’d spread untold chaos during the fat and happy years of Pete Carroll.

Leukemia stopped that. Udeze had chemotherapy and got a bone marrow transplant from his brother. He tried to play, but neuropathy in his foot forced his retirement. At 26.

Now Udeze, 34, visits the doctor only once a year. “Just to do bloodwork,” he said.

The cancer is behind him, and he has some catch-up in front of him. He is the second-year defensive line coach at USC, which meets Stanford in the Pac-12 championship game Friday night, a game the Trojans have never won.

“Our guys know what to expect,” Udeze said. “They’ve played this team for years.”

Stanford certainly did not expect to get clubbed 42-24 by the Trojans on Sept. 9. As is its habit, the Cardinal got better. It won the Pac-12 North, and now David Shaw tries to improve his championship-game record to 4-0. He is Stanford’s all-time coaching winner now.

Even on that night, Bryce Love sprinted for a 75-yard touchdown. He has a 30-yard run, or longer, in each game this year. For 10 consecutive games, he had a 50-yard run or longer. No one in college football has done that in 20 years.

“That long run was an alignment problem,’ said Clancy Pendergast, USC’s defensive coordinator. “We did a nice job against him the rest of the game, but obviously he’s a challenge.”

Assessing USC’s defense this year depends on what numbers you choose. It’s a lot like the season in full.

If you really thought USC was a top-4 team in preseason, then you can be disappointed in 10-2. Then again, Florida State (5-6) was top-4 as well. When teams are “overrated,” why don’t the “raters” get blamed.

The Trojans had shaky home wins over Texas and Utah. They also were undefeated except for a close loss at Washington State, with three offensive linemen down, and a nightmare night at Notre Dame, when they gave up 397 yards, 8 per carry.

They are 60th nationally in rush defense but they have 41 sacks, tops in the FBS, and defensive end Rasheem Green has eight and nose tackle Josh Fatu six. They also rank 10th in interceptions.

“Watching guys get better, that’s why you see me smiling,” Udeze said. “It’s the greatest joy you can have when you see Josh and Malik Dorton and all of them coming around. I’m proud to be their coach. We talk about a lot of things. They already know my story.”

Udeze thinks about Lala Mendoza, now retired, who coached him at Verbum Dei, a school that played games on Saturday afternoons, not Friday nights, because of the neighborhood. “He was stoic and cutthroat,” Udeze said, “but you always knew he loved you. Even on your worst day he treated you like it was your best day. You can’t get caught up in what they’re not doing right. You got to make sure they’re maximizing their ability.

“We were all disappointed about Notre Dame. But the guys are tough-minded. At some point you say hats off to Notre Dame and try to improve. We’ve been through so much. We didn’t have a bye week until last week. I think the guys are happy they got some rest. I just try to keep it as fun and as physical as possible.”

The connection between football and fun is fraying these days. Udeze is still a believer. He says you can ask about all the coaches, where they went to school, what they did. “When it’s done right, like Coach Carroll did it, it’s special,” he said.

What’s next?

“I was drafted at 20, I got sick at 24,” he said. “So I know I’m not in control of it.

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